Meet the world's 10 richest billionaires

From a Spanish fashion tycoon to Australia's female mining magnate and China's soft drink king - the world's richest have amassed a net worth of $2.7 trillion (£1.69 trillion). That's about the same size as the French economy, the fifth-biggest in the world.

Bloomberg Markets' inaugural list of the world's richest people features 200 billionaires, including 30 'hidden' billionaires that have never been listed in a rich list before.

There are a few surprises within the ranking; for example, the fastest growing billionaire is Amancio Ortega of Spain (pictured), founder of Inditex, which has grown into the world's largest clothing retailer and is best known for its 1,600 Zara stores. The 76-year-old has made nearly $18 billion since October 2011 – about $66 million a day.

Similar to other wealth rankings, Mexican telecoms mogul Carlos Slim, 72, comes out top with $77.5 billion, followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 57, with £64.4 billion. Ortega is third, having amassed $53.6 billion. He has eclipsed veteran investor Warren Buffett – known as 'The Sage of Omaha' – who is now in fourth place with $48.4 billion. Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, 86, comes fifth with $41.8 billion. In fact nine of the 25 wealthiest people are retail moguls (four in the top ten alone).

These are household names, while brothers Charles and David Koch, who are worth $38.6 billion each and rank sixth and seventh, are less well known. They run the eponymous oil and chemical conglomerate founded by their father, a chemical engineer. The Wichita, Kansas-based group is the second-largest private company in the US today.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison is eighth with $37.2 billion, followed by four members of the Walton family that control US supermarket chain Wal-Mart: Christy Walton ($30.5 billion), the widow of John T. Walton, one of the sons of Sam Walton who founded the company. Jim Walton ($29.3 billion), Rob Walton ($28.7 billion) and Alice Walton ($28.2 billion) are next. There are 14 families in the top 200.

The world's richest singletons

'Hidden billionaires'
Among the hidden billionaires is Brazil's Dirce Navarro de Camargo who took over her late husband's industrial conglomerate, Camargo Correa in 1994. Another one is Elaine Marshall, who controls 15% of Koch Industries. But they aren't a patch on Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in the Asia-Pacific woman who rode the commodities boom and made billions from mining iron ore and coal. She is now locked in a courtroom battle with three of her four children over the family's $19.1 billion minerals empire.

Zong Qinghou, the soda seller who made it big from humble origins, has been identified as mainland China's richest man and is worth $20.1 billion. When he started out he made about $8 a month - today he is still selling soda, juice and bottled water, through the Hangzhou Wahaha Group beverage empire.

The world's youngest billionaire is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, aged 28 and worth $10.7 billion, in 88th place. The oldest is 93-year-old media mogul Anne Cox Chambers, who is worth $8.2 billion at number 135. And Europe still has the most billionaires with 33% of the top 200.